Morgan passed by Eden, sending blood splashing as he carved his way into Eden's face.
But his rage was not quelled in the slightest, for he knew he had not finished his target.
Forcefully stopping himself, the wooden deck under Morgan's feet shattered as he turned around, only to be met with a broken sword going straight for his face.
Even as he had felt Morgan's claws carve into his face, Eden never stopped moving as he threw his broken short sword at Morgan, his Talent giving him perfect aim.
Morgan might be powerful, but even he would not just take a sword to the face, even if the reaction was instinctual, so he stopped for a moment to swipe away the flying sword.
Then, a greatsword was swung down at his shoulder, forcing even him to dodge as Guardian had arrived.
The Players who had surrounded Eden were all dead, either at Morgan's or Guardian's hands, and so Eden ran.
Behind him, Morgan released a guttural roar, but Guardian stopped him, giving Eden the chance to escape.
Of the initial hundreds of men, only a few were left. Only four pirates had reached the ship, which they were manning to leave, while the few Rogues left had fled. Neither Morgan nor Guardian were things they could stop, and the Players dumb enough to stay to nip Eden had already been killed by the two beasts.
Snarling in both pain and frustration, Eden gathered most of what he had left of mana and looked back, casting a Dark Pool at Morgan's feet, and ran without even looking at the effects.
As Eden reached the last ship, one of the smaller Spanish ships that had arrived late, Eden recognized the few pirates left.
They were Barbossa, Pintel, Ragetti, and Drakon.
The last of which was looking at him with a dark gaze.
[Your Evil Servant has been slain!]
The moment Eden reached the ship, he received a notification from Dreamland. Jumping to a safe distance away from the pirates on board, Eden looked back and saw the now headless figure of Guardian down to its knees, and Morgan sprinting their way with unnatural speed.
But the four pirates were already furiously rowing away, understanding that while Morgan's target was Eden, he would kill them all if he reached them.
Stopping at the next ship, which was sinking because of the earlier cannon fire, Morgan exploded, "You are a dead man, Ozymandias!"
Eden looked back silently, before turning his back on him, and settled his dark gaze onto the four pirates.
His current appearance was extremely fierce, with the right side of his face being nothing more than a bundle of mangled flesh.
Pintel and Ragetti were visibly terrified, and even Barbossa had an ugly expression. Drakon, on the other hand, let go of his oar.
His face cold, Eden was ready to take out the scroll he had gotten from the assassins as he threatened, "I still have enough juice to incinerate this ship. Do you want to try me out?"
Drakon looked back defiantly, his blade already in his hand.
But then, they heard a cannon fire, and all looked up to see a cannonball coming their way. And going by the way Eden's danger sense was flaring up, this was one of Morgan's specials.
Eden hesitated for a moment, to just jump off the ship on his own and let Drakon die, out of sheer spite for what just happened, but since they had managed to keep Barbossa alive up to this point, Eden still warned loudly as he leapt, "Jump!"
Perhaps because they had seen what Morgan's cannonballs had done earlier, or because they unconsciously trusted Eden's words thanks to his earlier performance, none of them hesitated as they all jumped off the ship, diving into the water just in time for the cannonball to hit their ship.
Even while underwater, Eden felt the strong shockwave push him back a little as the ship exploded into pieces. The cannonball had hit it straight in the center and split the ship in two.
Eden quickly re-emerged, the salty water bringing the pain from his injuries to the next level, but he only grunted as he latched onto a nearby floating plank.
He felt his consciousness wavering, but he bit on his tongue, forcing himself to stay awake as he uneasily took out his four remaining health potions, drinking them one after the other.
The smarter decision might have been to only drink one or two, to stabilize his condition and not waste, but Eden was in so much pain that he could not care less.
As his HP returned to full, Eden felt the flesh on the right side of his face mend, but he did not regain his vision, just as his left arm was still missing a half. He was ready to bet he was not so handsome at the moment either.
Still, the pain had subsided enough for Eden to stay away.
As he slowly floated away from the burning remains of the Spanish ship, Eden tried to look around for his companions, but it was impossible to see anything.
It was dark as night had fallen, and the sea itself was dark. The ship was also rapidly sinking, and the flames from the explosion had been extinguished.
He called out, and heard no reply as he slowly drifted away.
Very soon, it became impossible to see anything but the surrounding water as he drifted away from the battle. The fates of the four others were unknown. Eden looked at the surrounding darkness, wondering whether they would survive.
He was sure the initial impact had not killed them, since three were important characters of the world and the fourth was a tanky Player, but they were stranded with little chance of survival.
Shaking his head to chase away these thoughts, Eden turned his attention to his Inventory, where the spoils of the battle lay.
There were a dozen caches, no doubt victims of the late Guardian, as well as one of the swords from the assassins, and the scroll.
Eden started with the sword and the scroll.
[Shadow Gladius]
[Rank: Uncommon]
[Attack: +27]
[Agility: +2]
[Pinpoint: Ignore 10 defence if struck in a vital spot.]
It was a good sword, and a fine replacement for Jason's Machete. Actually, all things considered, he preferred it to the machete, as he not only liked the form of the gladius better, but he preferred the boost to Agility. The Pinpoint passive was also better than Voorhees' Curse, in his sense.
[Scroll of Thunderwave (1st Circle, Consumable): Blasts the area in front of you with thunderous force, dealing 10 thunder damage to all creatures within two meters.]
As expected, it was the same scroll that the assassins had used against him. Seeing its damage, Eden must have taken it in the worst way possible to have lost 19 HP from it. Well, taking a wall of force to the face hardly sounded like the best way to tank it.
Also, if he had any doubts before about the origin of these assassins, he was now sure: these were assassins from Shadows.
Their equipment was the same, and even had 'Shadow' in the names. Eden guessed that the swords and scrolls had been crafted by members of Shadow and were issued to new members of the Guild.
Next, Eden opened the twelve caches at once, which were disappointing. Even put together, they only gave him 611 Dream Points and a few Common pieces of equipment.
Closing his Inventory, Eden looked up at the starry sky, not sure what to think of the battle. At first glance, he had lost much more than he had gained, his grave injuries being a large part of those losses.
The few pieces of equipment he had gotten were far from making up for what he had lost.
That was only looking at the direct effects, however.
First off, Eden had truly managed to get away with the Skull. Earlier, although he had left the island with it, Morgan had proven that it was not truly Eden's yet. Now, though, he was out of his direct reach and could do whatever he wanted with it.
Secondly, although his survival chances were not that high, nor were Barbossa's, there was a non-negligible chance they would live. After all, Barbossa was an extremely important character of this world, and he had presumably suffered a similar fate in the original timeline.
Thirdly, assuming Eden survives, based on how Morgan had acted, he would do everything in his power to find Eden and take the Skull from him. As the Lord of an island with close ties to several royal families, especially the English one, the easiest way to find him would be to put an extravagant reward for his capture, which would in turn result in a great gain in reputation for Eden.
So, things were not necessarily as bleak as they might seem at first glance.
Already feeling better, Eden looked around when an idea came to mind. Maybe he could cast a Strengthened Fireball into the sky to act as a form of beacon. He doubted Morgan was on his trail, as Eden himself did not know where he was, and Morgan already had the Rogue Pirates to deal with, so the most likely to see it would be his companions, or a ship passing by if he was lucky.
That idea was quickly dismissed, however, as Eden realized the impracticality of the idea.
He still only had one arm, and he was using it to hold the plank. He would have to free his arm to cast a Strengthened Fireball, and while Eden could keep himself afloat for a while using only his legs, the chance of losing his plank was too high.
Resigned, Eden closed his eyes and started meditating silently. It was not like he had anything to do anyway.
It was the first time Eden used his meditation technique in a neutral environment, as he usually only did it with the Skull for maximum effect.
It was slower without it, and much harder to feel his mana as he was absorbing neutral mana, as far as he could tell. What only took two minutes with the Skull took nearly an hour as Eden restored his MP to full.
The experience was not worthless, however, as the long duration provided more experience, by being long, and the more elusive nature of neutral mana forced him to dig deeper to feel it.
His mana reserves, or MP, full, Eden opened his remaining eye, intent on training his skills,
when he spotted something nearby.
It was hard to discern because of the darkness of the night, but it looked like a mass in the distance.
Was it… an island?
Eden's legs started beating furiously as he stirred himself in the direction of the dark mass, and much to his joy, it was getting bigger!
A dozen minutes later, the feeling of the hard ground had never felt any better to Eden as he lay down on a large rock.
It was indeed an island, and although it seemed pretty small, there was still some vegetation. At least, there were trees.
As for whether there were any locals or any other dangers, Eden had no idea, but he had a good way to ward them off.
Eden raised his hand toward the sky, forming a horn sign as he cast a Strengthened Fireball into the sky. It acted like a temporary lighthouse as it exploded twenty-five meters into the sky, lighting up the way for anyone lost at sea. Of course, it also worked for the island, but the moment he had cast his spell, Eden took out the Skull and started meditating.
Even if something lived on the island, whether it be humans or animals, they would instinctively avoid the necrotic energy released by the Skull, and the longer it stayed out, the thicker it would be.
From there, Eden started occasionally casting fireballs into the sky, not only to light the way for others, but also to simply train.
"Sir Ozymandias! Is that you?"
In the middle of his meditation, Eden heard a voice laced with equal amounts of fear and hope call out to him.
Opening his eyes, Eden retrieved the Skull and walked out of the miasma in the direction of the voice.
There were four figures: Pintel, Ragetti, Barbossa, and Drakon.
They were all drenched, and Barbossa was even on the ground, seemingly unconscious. Drakon looked like he did not want to be there, while Pintel was shivering, either from the cold or from fear, though it was likely from both.
It was Ragetti who had called out to him, if Eden was right.
Glancing back at Barbossa, Eden asked simply, "Is he dead?"
Drakon immediately got on guard, having been the one to tell Eden Players were hunting Barbossa for the great rewards his murder offered. Although he had also told Eden there would be even greater rewards if they saved him, he had kept to himself what should be done to continue the quest.
To him, Eden's words were a hardly-veiled threat, telling him that if he did not reveal the rest of the series of missions to him, Eden would finish off Barbossa to get the rewards. And if he did that, Eden might as well kill the three of them.
Seeing how he had been spamming Strengthened Fireballs into the sky, Eden was certainly capable of killing them, despite his current state.
For Ragetti, though, Eden's words were full of concern as he smiled, reassuring, "No, we managed to drag him to shore in time! He is only unconscious."
Pintel added, "Thank you for the guidance, too, Sir Ozymandias. We would have been lost without your magic! You truly are a great man, Sir!"
Eden softly chuckled at the characteristic boot licking, training his eyes on Drakon. His fellow Player did not move for a moment before crouching next to Barbossa. He took out a red potion and poured its contents into Barbossa's mouth before saying, "Pintel, Ragetti, guard Barbossa. I have a few things to say to Ozymandias."
Pintel and Ragetti nodded quietly, glancing back and forth between the two as they finally picked up on the tension.
Eden led Drakon a short distance away, far enough so that the other two would not hear them, and leaned on a tree, asking, "No thanking me for lighting the way for you?"
Drakon asked back, "Would you have done it if you did not need us?"
Eden shrugged nonchalantly, "Would anyone ever do anything then?"
Drakon sighed, likely too tired to argue, and thanked him briefly, "Thanks, then. But I guess you did not want to speak about that, did you?"
Raising his hand to his face, Eden lightly stroked his injuries, sending a jolt of pain through his body as he hissed, then said, "While you were busy stealing my kills and playing robbers with Barbossa, I had to pay quite the price to get us out of there. Sharing what the next steps are doesn't sound so demanding to me."
"What tells me you won't just kill me once I've told you?"
"Because I won't."
"And what if I don't tell you?"
"Then I'll kill you and figure out things for myself."
Drakon took a step back, fretting slightly, "You're one cold bastard, aren't you?"
Any humor or nonchalance had left Eden's body language now as he replied coldly, "Mutilation doesn't exactly help. So, made your choice?"
Drakon carefully looked at Eden's hand and face, weighing his options internally. Not in the mood to waste time, Eden slowly raised his hand, making a horn sign in Drakon's direction.
In the end, Drakon sighed, leaning back against a tree himself as he said, "Fine, it's not like it's particularly precious information anymore, with the chaos you've caused."
Eden lowered his hand, and Drakon explained, "There were far too many strange things in this battle; it's like every camp was amped up. The French usually get crushed, and either the Spanish or the Pirates get the upper hand before the Rogues finish whichever side won. But this time, every faction had strong backing."
Thinking back on the assassins, Eden said, "The pirates had us, and the French had Shadows, at least. What about the Spanish?"
Drakon shrugged, "Hard to say, but they managed to gather forces strong enough to face off against whoever the fuck you offended. And that's the real problem," he looked vexed, "because I don't know what kind of monster you got to chase after you, but they threw the battle off balance, and introduced chaos into the equation."
"You don't know who it was?"
Drakon looked at him and clicked his tongue, "I can guess. There aren't ten thousand different factions on Munro Island, so probably Henry Morgan. And by the looks of things, you angered him by stealing that skull away from him, didn't you?"
Eden chose not to respond, letting Drakon make his assumptions.
Taking it as him agreeing, Drakon continued, "Whatever the outcome of the Ivory Battle is, the next step takes place in the Brethren Court. According to the original timeline, Barbossa finds his way there and warns the Brethren Court of the Rogue Pirates. There, they will discover the real masterminds behind them."
The Brethren Court was the high court of pirates, where the different Pirate Lords would meet and exchange. It was featured in the third movie.
Curious, Eden asked, "And who is that?"
Drakon replied casually, "Lord of the Caspian Sea, Boris Palachnik."